2014-02-11T21:24:21-05:00http://tjsingleton.name/Octopress2013-11-02T14:45:00-04:00http://tjsingleton.name/2013/11/maybe-normalizing-isnt-normalJeff Atwood has a very pragmatic post on database normalization. I love his summary, “normalize until it hurts, denormalize until it works.”

]]>2013-09-11T20:31:00-04:00http://tjsingleton.name/2013/09/pageobjectI previously posted about using the page
object pattern to improve your acceptance tests. This article by Fowler sheds some more light on the pattern.

]]>2013-09-11T08:42:00-04:00http://tjsingleton.name/2013/09/your-path-through-agile-fluencyToo often I find that organizations are too focused on what agile tools to use or adopting a few specific practices.
After all, I find agile tool to be a contradiction of terms. “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”
is the first value proposition of the agile manifesto. Focusing on the right tool is
the wrong approach. This article outlines the right approach and the right focus; delivering business value.

]]>2013-09-10T22:19:00-04:00http://tjsingleton.name/2013/09/purposeofestimationToo often I feel like I’ve been involved with teams where estimation was done solely as a ritual and had no actual use.
I understand there are situations for where there is a legitimate use in estimation. I think Fowler is spot-on when in
his proposition that, “estimation is valuable when it helps you make a significant decision.”

]]>2013-06-26T14:10:00-04:00http://tjsingleton.name/2013/06/organizational-skills-beat-algorithmic-wizardryHear, hear. I’ve seen interview problems for full-stack web app developers that would take math majors to succeed at. I’ve
always left thinking if that’s the kind of engineer you want, it’s not the kind of place I want to work.